Try To Believe
by Ranma Inverse
Summary: R for upcoming situations and possible lemonesque. Alternate Couple, What If? Reality: What if something happened in the future, that Kagome couldn't bear and caused her to come to live in the past, and live as the Guardian Priestess of the Shikon Jewel?
1. Prologue

TryToBelievePrologue 

**Try To Believe...**   
by Ranma Inverse   
_prologue_

  
  
  
  


_ Author's note: After Chapter One, I will not write more until I get reviews asking me to finish it through. This is a VERY UNUSUAL alternate pairing fic. I have NEVER seen this pairing, ever. Well, at least, if Kagome ends up with that possibility. There's two more possibilities of which one is very rare and one is just beginning to be seen more often. Please read and review and say which alternate pairing possibility you would like it to be! Even though im not telling you, you can still request for Kagome to end up with someone! (No, I will not pair her with Hojo, Inuyasha, Sota, or Myouga in this fic. Jaken? Don't even try.) And...please, don't read on unless you have a **Veeeeeryyyy** open mind. It's not yaoi, it's not yuri, it's not incest, but it does recquire an open mind. You won't know what the couple will be yet, not in the prologue. Plus, this prologue is short!_

_ ....No, it's not Kagome/Hojo. -_-;_   
_. . ._

They had the last shard of the jewel. 

The quest was completed. 

Kagome let out a sigh of relief as the became complete and she hung it around her neck on a necklace. The others were watching her carefully, as if unsure what she would do next. Kagome smiled. 

"This...is the end, I guess." At her words, the others seemed to become a little depressed. Inu Yasha crossed his arms. Kagome gave them an uncertain smile. 

"Well, i'll come back sometimes, you know I will. To make sure everything's okay and that the shikon no tama hasn't been stolen again." She tried to joke, "It'd be real trouble if it got stolen again, wouldn't it?" 

The group didn't answer. The young kitsune, Shippou, began to cry and lept onto Kagome, hugging her. "Kagome! I don't want you to go! I'll miss you too much!" 

Miroku took Kagome's hand and pressed it between his. "I will not forget you. May the next time you appear be a day I am visiting this village." 

Tears fell from Sango's eyes, and she hugged Kagome, unintentionally squishing the buddha monk between them. "I'll miss you, Kagome! Come back soon! I'll stay in this village and protect the shikon no tama!" She let go, and the buddha monk fell over from lack of air. 

Kagome turned to the last one, who looked at her from the corner of his golden eyes. "Inu Yasha, why don't you want to use the shikon no tama to turn into a demon?" She reached a hand out, almost ready to give him a farewell hug. 

The hanyou turned his back to her. "It's none of your business!" 

The hand fell. 

"Well, I should leave now." She turned her back to them and faced the well. "Goodbye." 

As she jumped, she hurt Inu Yasha shout, "Come back soon, Kagome!" 

...But she wasn't sure if it was her imagination or not.


	2. Chapter One

**Try To Believe...**   
by Ranma Inverse   
_Chapter One_

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


_ Author's note: Thank you for the reviews! Please review this chapter as well! ^^; I have now decided who Kagome is going to end up with...and it's not Sesshoumaru. I am sorry to disappoint those of you who wish for this to be a Sesshoumaru/Kagome fic, but I will write a Sesshoumaru/Kagome fic some other time. Those of you who might complain about a non-Sesshoumaru/Kagome fic, leave now. Flamers will be ignored as well. Don't read this fic if you aren't gonna like a coupling other than Sesshy-Kago, or Inu-Kago. o.o; Those open for a change, read on._

_Here's an idea: After this fic, I could either do two more versions of it, one with Kagome and Sesshoumaru, the other with the third pairing I had come up with, or I do a Kagome-Sesshoumaru fic once this one is done, and then after that one i'll do the third idea. Pick which one ya want. If I did two other versions of this, it'd be similar in some parts (as in, the general idea..), but in other parts, VERY different. One choice/action can change all others, and therefore..the fics would be different. Please tell me which you want, or if you want neither!_   
_- - -_   
_ "Follow the trace...forever" - Gravity Of Love, Enigma._   
- - - 

Sango stared at the shikon jewel in her hands while in thought. Outside the village, Inuyasha sat in his tree sleeping. 

Shippou sat by the well and looked down, watching. Waiting for Kagome to come back. He looked up when he felt a hand on his shoulder. Miroku stood behind him, a serious look on his face. 

"She won't return today. It is too soon. She only left a few hours ago." 

Shippou curled his tiny hands into fists. "How would you know? She might miss us!" 

"She has friends in her time as well, she will most likely be catching up with them." 

The young kitsune looked down the well once more, before remembering something and bounding off into the village. Miroku, unaware of the fox demon's thoughts, smiled. "That's more like it, Shippou!" His attention left that area soon though, as he too went to the village, but instead followed beautiful young maidens around. 

Sango turned as she heard the door to her room open, then relaxed as she registered who the kitsune was. "Oh, Shippou. What are you doing here?" 

"Aren't you lonely being here? There's noone with you." The demon pup walked over to her and sat in her lap. He gave her a hug. 

The warrior-woman smiled. "You're thoughtful, Shippou. But no, I don't mind this silence." 

Shippou ended the hug and backed up to look at her. "Oh. I thought you'd be lonely, but since you aren't I'll be leaving now.." With that, the kitsune pup left. 

"Shippou's such a thoughtful boy..." Sango blinked as she felt something missing. She brought a hand up to her face, the one that had carried the shikon no tama. Realization dawned upon her and she stormed out of the hut. 

"**_SHIIIIIPPOOOOOOUUUUUU!!!_**" She screeched so loudly that the whole village turned their heads in her direction as she stormed off in the direction of the Bone Eater's Well. 

Shippou smiled as he stood on the edge of the well, holding the shikon no tama in his hands. "Inuyasha can travel through the well without the jewel..but..noone else seems to be able to without the jewel. Kagome always needed it...so..." The kitsune took a deep breath. "To Kagome!" He proclaimed and jumped down into the Bone Eater's Well. 

. . . 

He opened his eyes when he felt dirt underneath him. Shippou blinked and brushed back his reddish-orange hair. He heard strange noises and lots of voices. Curious, he climbed up the well and blinked as he noticed how charred the shrine was. "What...?" He blinked once again and rushed out of the shrine. The sight before him 'caused him to widen his eyes. Big...metal-like things with wheels were parked all around, some with flashing lights. People dressed in blue and others dressed in white wandered through the area and loud noises continued. He looked up at the home near the shrine...and widened his eyes even more. It mostly was collapsed and charred beyond recognition, but he still saw a few flames burning, clashing against water coming out of long green snakes being held by people in yellow. 

Shippou sniffed the air and caught the scent of Kagome. Where was she? Was she in the charred building? No...her scent was there, but old...he caught a fresher scent of her and followed it. 

It led him far off in a small forest, where he found her hugging her knees and shaking. He caught the sounds of sobbing and rushed to her side. Kagome didn't notice him and continued her sobs. Shippou reached a tiny hand to Kagome, but stopped before it reached her, and stared at it. 

Such a tiny hand...he hadn't needed to keep this form. He was much older than his body looked, but he had kept his child form at first because it was the last time his father had seen him in, and then because Kagome and the others had gotten used to him as the young, child-like fox demon that constantly got on Inuyasha's nerves. 

Closing his eyes, he consentrated on his appearance and slowly, the hand aged, stretched, and became larger. So did the rest of him. His appearance now resembled that of a boy around Kagome's age. 

He smiled gently and finally put the hand on Kagome's shoulder. She jumped and lifted her chesnut brown eyes filled with tears to him. She took no account to his appearance, to immersed in whatever was wrong. "What is it?" She managed to say, though it came out between sobs. 

"Are you okay, Kagome?" His voice also had changed slightly. It had deepened. He kept his gaze comforting. Even if she didn't recognize him, with the state she was in, she was ready to spout out what was wrong to anyone who came by and talked to her. 

"Okay? Okay?!" Her voice squeaked the last word. "How can I be okay? I came back and my home was on fire...Mom...Grandpa...Sota...they said all they had found were charred bodies..." Shippou didn't know who 'they' were, but he assumed it was some of the people that had been around her home. 

"They hadn't figured out what had caused it yet..." She began to cry again and Shippou wrapped an arm around her, trying to comfort her as it was all he could think to do. All he understood was her family must have died in a fire that had started in her home. Now neither of them had family other than the group that had formed with Inuyasha and Kagome. 

He found some words to say though, and so said them. "Kagome..if you aren't happy here, then go where you'll be happy. Where you _can _be happy." With that said, he shushed and kept his attempt at comfort, his arm wrapped around her shoulders there as he listened to her sobs turn quieter and quieter until she fell asleep. There he waited until someone came by, where he hid behind bushes and made sure it was a friend. 

"Higurashi? They said you had run off over here..." The male that seemed a bit older than Kagome shook her shoulder lightly. 

Shippou forced down a growl and continued watching. His friend's head looked up sleepily at the male and she stood up and jumped into his arms. "Hojo!! Can...can I stay at your place tonight? I'm sorry to bother you...but I don't have anywhere else to go right now..." 

The male called 'Hojo' smiled gently. "Alright." 

Shippou frowned. She had another place to go! She could go with back to him and Sango and Miroku and Inuyasha...he shook his head. But she hadn't recognized him, had she? He didn't like this 'Hojo' person, but he didn't smell dangerous, and so he'd trust him with Kagome...for now. 

With that, he went back to the well and left. 


End file.
